Beacon Lights of History, Volume 01 eBook

“Buddhism,” says the author of its accepted
catechism, “teaches goodness without a God,
existence without a soul, immortality without life,
happiness without a heaven, salvation without a saviour,
redemption without a redeemer, and worship without
rites.” The failure of Buddhism, both as
a philosophy and a religion, is a confirmation of the
great historical fact, that in the ancient Pagan world
no efforts of reason enabled man unaided to arrive
at a true—­that is, a helpful and practically
elevating—­knowledge of deity. Even
Buddha, one of the most gifted and excellent of all
the sages who have enlightened the world, despaired
of solving the great mysteries of existence, and turned
his attention to those practical duties of life which
seemed to promise a way of escaping its miseries.
He appealed to human consciousness; but lacking the
inspiration and aid which come from a sense of personal
divine influence, Buddhism has failed, on the large
scale, to raise its votaries to higher planes of ethical
accomplishment. And hence the necessity of that
new revelation which Jesus declared amid the moral
ruins of a crumbling world, by which alone can the
debasing superstitions of India and the godless materialism
of China be replaced with a vital spirituality,—­even
as the elaborate mythology of Greece and Rome gave
way before the fervent earnestness of Christian apostles
and martyrs.

It does not belong to my subject to present the condition
of Buddhism as it exists to-day in Thibet, in Siam,
in China, in Japan, in Burmah, in Ceylon, and in various
other Eastern countries. It spread by reason of
its sympathy with the poor and miserable, by virtue
of its being a great system of philanthropy and morals
which appealed to the consciousness of the lower classes.
Though a proselyting religion it was never a persecuting
one, and is still distinguished, in all its corruption,
for its toleration.